Sinuous spring attaching means



June 25, 1957 w. H. NEI-:LY

srNuoUs SPRING ATTAGHING MEANS Filed April 16, 1954 l INVENTOR.

WILLIAM H' NEELY BY NW Q' HTT.

United States Patent() ice SINUOUS SPRING ATTACHING MEANS William H. Neely, Cleveland, Ohio, assignor to The Universal Wire Spring Company, Bedford, h10, a corporation of Ohio Application April 16, 1954, Serial No. 423,652

6 Claims. (Cl. 155-179) This invention relates in general to supporting members for springs of spring constructions and, more particularly, to supporting and anchoring means for sinuously corrugated wire springs assembled to spring constructions.

The primary object of this invention is the provision of a supporting rail constructed to readily removably mount sinuously corrugated wire springs, the supporting rail including for each spring to be mounted thereon two cooperating wire spring holding portions, one of which consists of an elongated strip-shaped extension formed by slitting the supporting rail in laterally spaced sections and upsetting the portion intermediate such slits to form a at loop, and the other one of which consists of a hookshaped extension struck up from the rail and located in predetermined position with respect to the strip-shaped extension; said cooperating holding portions effecting a biting engagement between the side wall edges of the strip-shaped extension when a cross member of a sinuously corrugated wire spring is positioned partly through the tiat loop formed by the strip-,shaped extension and an adjacent portion of said spring is rotated and sprung into interlocked relationship with said hook-shaped extension.

Another object of the invention is the provision of a supporting rail of the type referred to above, in which each hook-shaped extension is laterally offset with respect to the longitudinal axis of the respective strip-shaped extension and angularly related with respect thereto to insure a proper biting engagement of the side wall edges of the strip-shaped extension when a cross member of a sinuously corrugated wire spring is positioned through the flat loop and an adjacent portion of said spring is rotated and sprung into interlocked relationship with` said hook-shaped extension.

A further object of the invention is the provision of a supporting rail of the type referred to above, in which proper biting engagement of the side wall edges of the strip-shaped extension with the cross member of a sinuously corrugated Wire spring is controlled by the shape of the wire spring having for this purpose such cross member extended in predetermined angular relation to the other cross members of the wire spring.

With the above and other incidental objects in view, the invention has other marked improvements and superiorities which radically distinguish same from presently known structures. These improvements and superior characteristics, embodying certain novel features of construction, are clearly set forth in the appended claims and the preferred embodiments of the invention hereinafter shown with reference to the accompanying drawingA 2,796,921 Patented June 25, 1957 Fig. 4 is a sectional view taken on line 4-4 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is a plan View similar to Fig. 1 of a modified form of a rail member constructed in accordance with the invention;

Fig. 6 is a sectional View taken on line 6--6 of Fig. 5;

Fig. 7 is a sectional view taken on line 7-7 of Fig. 5;

Fig. 8 is a plan view similar to Fig. l of another moditied form of a rail member constructed in accordance with the invention;

Fig. 9 is a sectional View taken on line 9--9 of Fig. 8; and t Fig. 10 is a sectional view taken on line 10-10 of Fig. 8.

Referring now more in detail to the exemplified form of the invention shown in Figs. 1 through 4 of the drawing, reference numeral 2 denotes a rail member ernbodying two parallelly arranged -Ush`aped rail sections 3 and 4 provided with seating and resting portions 5 and 6 and formed with downwardly extended side llanges 7 and 8. The seating and resting portion 5 of rail section 3 includes a plurality of laterally spaced elongated stripshaped extensions 9 which are inclined with respect to the longitudinal axis of section 3 and are formed by slitting seating and resting portion `5 by parallel, laterally spaced slits 10 and 11 and upsetting the area of said portion between slits 10 and 11. These `strip-shaped extensions are U-shaped and each form an elongated loop including a web portion 12 extended above seating and resting portion 5 in substantially parallel relation with respect thereto and flanges 14 and 15 blended intoV the seating and resting portion. Theseating and resting portion 6 of rail section 4 includes a plurality of hook-shaped extensions 16, each of which ispositioned in spaced, laterally offset relation to the respective strip-shaped extension 9 on seating and resting portion 5. The hook-shaped extensions 16, which arestruck up from seating and resting portion 6 by slitting same to form tongue members 17 and bending such tongue members upwardly and thereafter substantially parallel to the seating and resting portion, provide seats 18 adapted toV engage the wire of loops 19 of sinuously corrugated Wire springs 20 mounted on rail member 2.

Strip-shaped members 9 of'seating and resting portions 5 have their longitudinal axes inclined with respectto the longitudinalaxesof hook-shaped members 16 of seating and resting portion 6 to securely` mount the sinuouslycorrugated wire springs20 on rail` sections 3 and 4 in the desired position in respect thereto without deforming the Wire springs prior to their mounting.

Strip-shaped extensions 9 and hook-shaped extensions 16 cooperate in pairs to removably seat and hold and bitingly grip sinuously corrugated wire springs 20 when seated on rail sections 3 and 4 and permit quick and efcient mounting and demounting of the springs on said rail sections.

Mounting of sinuously corrugated wire spring 20 on rail sections 3 and 4 is etected by placing such wire spring on the rail sections, threading an end cross member 21 of the wire spring partly through the .loop formed by a strip-like extension 9 and shifting of the wire spring toward the respective hook-shaped extension 16. Such shifting of wire spring 20 induces contact of its end cross member 21 with the edges 22, 23 of the anges 14 and 1S of strip-shaped extension 9 and thereafter effects by yielding forces biting and gripping engagement between end cross member 21 and edges 22, 23. Shifting of wire j The modiiied form--of the invention shown in Figs. 5 through 7 shows Aa wire spring -supporting rail member similar in construction to the supporting rail member 2 disclosed in Figs. l through 4with the exception that the longitudinal axes of strip-like extensions 215 areparallel to the longitudinal -axis of rail` section 3 and that the end cross member 26 of wire spring 27 converges toward cross member 28 to etect proper biting engagement of flanges 29 and 30 of extension 2S with end .cross member 26 when wire 31 of wire spring 27 by its action is yieldingly sprung into the hook-shaped extension 32.

In the modified form of the invention shown in Figs. 8 through l0, the strip-like extensions 33 and hookshaped extensions 34 are positioned in a single rail .member 35 in such a manner that two cross members 36, 37 of wire spring 38 are gripped and engaged bya pair of cooperating extensions 33, 34. Strip-like extensions `3?: .are inclined with respect to the longitudinal axis of rail member 35, but it is obvious that cross member 36 may be bent to converge toward cross member 37 to permit positioning of strip-like .extension v33parallel to the axis of rail member 35, all as shown in the form .of invention disclosed in Figs. through 7.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

l. A supporting rail structure .for mounting elongated, sinuously corrugated wire springs formed at their ends with substantially straight wire lcross members rectangularly related to the axes of said springs, said rail structure including rail means with wall areas provided with laterally spaced elongated, U-shaped, strip-like extensions forming at loops projecting from said rail means and other Wall areas provided with hook-shaped portions projecting from said rail means, said flat loops dimensioned to permit end cross members of said springs to be laterally Vshiftably extended therethrough, said hook-shaped portions being positioned to be yieldingly engaged by wire portions of said springs when shifted to bring their end cross members into biting engagement with edges at opposite sides of the flanges of .said U-shaped, strip-like extensions whereby to prevent shifting of said springs with respect to the said rail structure.

2. A supporting rail structure as described in claim l, wherein the rail means embody two parallelly arranged axially spaced rail members, the one rail member having struck up therefrom said elongated U-shaped, striplike extensions forming the at loops and the other rail member having struck up therefrom the said hook-shaped portions.

3. In a spring structure including a supporting member and sinuously corrugated wire spring elements each having a generally transversely disposed end wire, striplike extensions struck out of said supporting member providing at loops with a top -wall and substantially spaced end walls, hook-like extensions struck out of said supporting member, each of said hook-like extensions being located and oriented in respect to one of said loops to receive a portion of a spring element in spring loaded interlocked relationship after Vthe end wire of said spring element is telescoped through said iat loop and said spring element isrotated and sprung laterally of its vaxis until a biting engagement occurs between the end walls forming said loop and said end wire.

4. In a structure for supporting elongated spring wire members with end portions angularly related to their longitudinal axes, rail means including -a at loop of substantial width formed by an .upwardly projected narrow strip, and a locking member formed by an upwardly projected hook-shaped portion, said locking member positioned to hookingly engage a spring wire member having an angularly related endl portion `threaded through the flat loop and shifted into engagement with symmetrical areas of opposite faces of the at lloop.

5. Arail structure as described in vclaim 4, wherein the flat-loop is angularly related to the longitudinal axis of the rail means to permit proper mounting and locking of a spring wire member having its angularly related end portion Yextended substantially transversely to the llongitudinal axis of the Yspring wire member.

6. In the combination of a sinuously corrugated wire spring including an end cross member with rail means supporting and mounting the wire spring a at loop in the rail means formed by a U-shaped struck-up narrow strip, said flat loop dimensioned to laterally shiftably receive the end cross member of the Wire spring and adapted to rigidly hold the end cross member when the wire spring is shifted laterally to be bitingly engaged with symmetrical areas of opposite faces of the flat loop, and struck-up, hook-shaped locking means on .said rail means arranged to be engaged by portions of said wire spring when its end cross member is bitingly engaged by edge portions of said flat loop.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,072,562 Lee Mar. 2, 1937 2,592,944 Neely Apr. l5, 1952 2,633,904 Neely et al. Apr. 7, 1953 2,669,290 Neely Feb. 16, 1954 FOREIGN PATENTS 687,636 Great Britain Feb. 18, 1953 

